HUMNap
Air Pollution and Human Biomarkers of Effect
15
HUMNap team members from 6 institutions from Croatia and Switzerland
970.500 HRK
approved HUMNap project's budget
11
Health biomarkers from blood and urine will be related to air pollution

Croatian Science Foundation
supports HUMNap project and career development of a PhD student over the next 4 years.
- The Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) study and WHO estimated 3 – 4.2 million deaths annually attributed to ambient air pollution. -
News:

2nd HUMNap team meeting
On the 5th of September 2023, the HUNMap team held an online meeting where current issues were discussed, and future activities planned. Looks like a thrilling period ahead of us.

HUMNap team at the 51st EEMGS meeting
The 51st European Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society meeting took place in Picasso’s birthplace city of Malaga. HUMNap team comprised of PI, PhD student’s mentor, and a collaborator, while the inspiring environment impacted discussion during the poster session.

HUMNap poster at TOXSEE regional conference
TOXSEE regional meeting was organized by Serbian Society of Toxicology in Belgrade. A PhD student presented her work gained over almost two years of intensive research. Since the congress name was – Present and Future of toxicology: challenges and opportunities, we hope we managed to showthe future applications of biomonitoring in general public health preservtion.

Environmental hypertensiology II
This year’s symposium topic was air pollution, noise, and blood pressure. Therefore, PI presented the results gained from HUMNap project and participated in a round table discussing the effects of air pollution on human health.

HUMNap young scientists at Idea Incubator @IMI
In April 2023, IMI organized an event during which short scientific talks were presented by young scientists. HUMNap project’s activities were presented and the progress of a PhD student. Moreover, during the same event, another PhD student presented EDIAQI project that is oriented to indoor air pollution and was received based on the knowledge gained in HUMNap.

HUMNap young scientists on 4th ZORH convention
During the 4th ZORH convention in Split, two of the PhD students gave talks about impacts of air pollution on human blood biomarkers, and about translating real-life scenario to in vitro research. The convention used as a platform for meeting of scientists, professionals and students on the topic of environmental protection in the Republic of Croatia.

Scientific-popular talk on Health Hack
The HUMNap’s PI held an invited talk for the Croatia’s Academy Association’s project Health Hack that was intended for life sciences’ students and public. The event took place at FER in Zagreb, where data form HUMNap was used to elaborate the impacts of air pollution on human genome and health.

Nature protocol – Comet assay paper
The HUMNap’s PI shared first co-autorship of recently published Nature protocol on the comet assay. Such protocol will also be implemented during th course of HUMNap project. Read more.

HUMNap PI at 45th EMSI international conference
During the 45th Environmental Mutagen Society of India international conference, HUMNap’s PI held an invited talk Air pollution impact on genomic instability in people living in Zagreb (Croatia).

Start of the EDIAQI project
Starting from December 2022, the Evidence Driven Indoor Air Quality Improvement (EDIAQI) Horizon 2020 project aims at conducting characterization of sources and routes of exposure and dispersion of chemical, biological, and emerging indoor air pollution in multiple cities in EU. More details here. We are happy to transfer knowledge and experience from HUMNap project to EDIAQI.

Internship to HUMNap project
We are proud to announce that a PhD student from the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague has completed a 2-month internship within the HUMNap.

Invited talk by PhD student
During the 11th International Congress of Turkish Society of Toxicology, our PhD student held an invited talk Monitoring air pollution and the health-related biomarkers: lessons from HUMNap.

Paper published
Our results show that measured air pollution parameters in Zagreb are largely below the regulatory limits, except for B[a]P, and as such, they do not affect CBMN assay parameters’ frequency. Check out full text and more publications here.

Year 1 of the project – completed
During July 2022, the HUMNap project reached its second year. We can inform you that all of 9 deliverables planned for the first year have been reached. We look forward to future challenges set for the period of next 18 months.

HUMNap team members join the EDIAQI Horizon2020 project
We are happy to announce HUMNap team members are involved in recently granted H2020 project Evidence Driven Indoor Air Quality Improvement. Project presents an interdisciplinary, science-based, and data-driven approach to improve guidelines and awareness for advancing the indoor air quality (IAQ) in Europe and beyond.

HUMNap @14th International Comet Assay Workshop 2022
May 2022 was reserved for 14th ICAW that took place in Maastricht, Holland. HUMNap PhD student attended the practical hands-on training to gain knowledge in advanced comet assay approaches – comet-on-chip and comet on 3D cell cultures. She also attended Adverse Outcome Pathways workshop as a part of the event, and orally presented results from HUMNap.

25th Health Fair in Vinkovci
HUMNap PI Goran Gajski presented the outline of the project and its relevancy to citizens and residents of Slavonia region, as a 30 min talk.

HUMNap team members join the ToxLearn4EU Erasmus+ project
Beginning in 2022, Toxicology Innovative Learning for Europe aims to modernize of toxicology and ecotoxicology teaching in Europe. G. Gajski, M. Gerić, and M. Milić (HUMNap members) will be involved in providing innovative content on current hot topics in the field of toxicology/ecotoxicology to fit with recent evolution of European Policy (Action Plan: ‘Towards Zero Pollution’).

HUMNap Vinkovci and Slavnoski Brod working meetings
HUMNap team held a working meetings with the part of the team from Vinkovci at which the conditions for air pollution monitoring site were discussed. During both meetings the criteria for volunteers recruitment and sampling were agreed.
Read more (link).

HUMNap at WISe
The HUMNap project used as one of the examples how young scientists could build their career, once completed the Faculty of Science. The Career days – WorkIn’ Science – WISe took place on November 3rd, 2021 at University of Zagreb.

The 1st HUMNap Workshop & Kick-off meeting
During the October 11th, 2021 the HUMNap team held the first virtual event. There were 7 focused oral presentations giving the overview of air quality in Croatia and methodological issues regarding determination biomarkers of exposure and effect. The talks were followed by round table and discussion/networking among the HUMNap team members.

CROTOX 2021
The HUMNap team attended 6th Croatian Congress of Toxicology, held in Rabac in October 2021 and presented the CFS funded HUMNap project as as poster and abstract entitled: HUMNap – Air pollution and human biomarkers of effect: an overview.

Air Protection 2021
We have attended the 12th Air Protection Conference, held in Medulin in September 2021 and presented the CFS funded HUMNap project as a poster and abstract entitled: Emerging research project: HUMNap – air pollution and human biomarkers of effect.

Want to join the team?
HUMNap project team is seeking for a PhD student candidates. All requirements for application could be found by clicking this post. We are looking forward to new collaboration. For more details check out the project's details you can find in the 'Project' tab.

HUMNap officially launched
Croatian Science Foundation, Institute for Medical Institution and Occupational Health's head, and HUMNap project principal investigator signed an agreement of project's start.